We are ready to light a hurricane !

Jens Schoenfeld has re-designed the complete hardware necessary to get a compatible
freezer, which runs the old softwares from Datel and D&E.
He has already produced some prototypes which have the new features and we are currently
working on supporting these functions.

The new hardware goes by the name of Retro Replay and features:

- Complete Action Replay register compatibility
- 128kb AMD FlashROM which is programmable from the C64
- 64kb ROM addressable from the c64, making the FlashROM have up to 2 different romsets.
- Crash protection to allow reading of the IO-Registers
- Proper Reset and Freeze Buttons, which are more robust compared to the original plastic ones
- Switchable $de00/$df00 IO-Area to allow REU compatibility
- 32 kb additional RAM (old carts used to have 8kb)
- Optional accessoiry connector for machine to machine interoperability
  (Hehe ... this means you are able to add a port to the cartridge which allows adding a serial
   highspeed port. This way you can transfer files using any serial port available.)

This hardware will be available in a few weeks (around July 2001) and the targetted price
will be 99 German Marks (around 50 Euros).
(Shipping costs will have to be added, but you will most probably be able to get the hardware
 at some reseller in your country aswell. Details to follow.)

For further questions regarding the hardware, please contact me at count0@c64.org or check the site of
Jens Schoenfeld at www.jschoenfeld.de.
(The support section has a technical document about the new hardware. That's it for now there.)


The cartridge which Peter Weiss and Andreas Brandmeyer were planning was not abandoned by me
or left aside. It was just that for more than a year there was no real movement, while YOU people
didn't do enough pre-orders. Nevertheless all of us can be happy that Jens is doing the new project
and even fullfilled my wettest dreams by adding all kind of features ... 
Also the price sounds fair enough, since old used carts at ebay go for slightly less.

Personally I am looking forward to supply other hardware aswell, so hopefully UHS
will become reality soon aswell and we can develop for it's ROM emulation.

I am currently taking reservations only and will forward them to Jens later on,
so if you like to add comments or simply want a new cartridge, mail me at: count0@c64.org


Facts & Numbers:

Targetted amount: 300   ---   Status: good

New Release date target: July-August 2001 --- Status: pending

For the developers, the contest (Free Cart) and the sponsorship
for Mekka and X2001 we are expecting about 8-10 cartridges.



People who have already asked by mail:


44 - as of 4th July 2001

[Hey, don't be shy, I speak and write english, german and babelfish... :) ]

th@nx for your attention ...